Category: Vermont

Since January of 2009 when President Obama took office, job openings by state as measured on Career Builder have increased 7.6% to 252,884 from 235,059. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 9.9% in May of 2010 and 15.3 million people were unemployed. While the increase is encouraging, job openings must increase much more to make a dent in the high number of unemployed.

Thirty six states have seen increases in job openings under Obama while 14 states have seen decreases.

Of the ten largest states, 9 have shown increases in the number of job openings. Of these large states, North Carolina was the Best State for Job Openings on Careerbuilder. Job openings have increased 17.0% in North Carolina since Obama became President. Illinois was the only large state to show a decrease in job openings since January of 2009. Its job openings decreased 4.5%. California has the most job openings on Careerbuilder yet its unemployment at 12.6% is the second highest in the nation.

The list of best and worst states for job openings follows. Interestingly, some of the states with low unemployment such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont have seen job openings shrink.

Sunshine is an under appreciated dimension when thinking about where to live. It can improve your health and happiness. Yet rarely do we hear people say they picked a state for its sunshine. They think more about weather temperature, jobs, taxes, cost of living etc. Sunny states generally qualify as Best States for Retirement and are Happy States according to recent happiness studies.

The Best States for Sunshine are Arizona and Nevada. Phoenix and Las Vegas each have 310 sunny days a year or 85% sunshine.

The Top 5 States for Sunshine, in addition to Arizona and Nevada, are California, New Mexico and Hawaii. Florida, the Sunshine State, is ranked 7th of all states.

The Worst State for Sunshine is Alaska with only 41% sunny days. Anchorage has only 150 days a year of sunshine half of Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The 5 Worst States for Sunshine are Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Vermont and Ohio. All 5 states have sun less than 50% of the time.
The List of Sunshine for all U.S. States is published below.

Rankings of Sunshine by State

If you are considering what are the Best States for Weather, study the Best States for Sunshine. You may just end up with happier choices.

With unemployment rising and economic stress increasing, the trust we have in our neighbors and community is of increasing concern. We want to live in a Safe States as they are Best States to Live. The poll asked people if they believed a lost wallet with $200 in would be returned. Nationwide 70% of people believe that their wallet would be returned with money still in the wallet. Large States according to Gallup are generally viewed as less trustworthy. People in the Southern half of the country do not trust their neighbors as much as people in the North. See Gallup’s map below.

The Best States for Neighbor Trust are:

The Worst States for Neighbor Trust are:

People in the South do not trust their neighbors as much as the North according to Gallup. Chart courtesy of Gallup.

When picking your place to live consider your neighbors. Safe States are Best States to Retire and are Top States to Live

Floyd Norris of the New York Times had an interesting blog post today titled Where People Die . An unusual topic. Floyd’s post listed the Best and Worst States for Births and States with Most Deaths per capita.

Then again Floyd does unusual work as evidenced by the fact that he interviewed me in Dec of 2007. His piece Pessimism Is Growing in Executive Suites investigated the outlook from the CEO perspective. I stated back then ““The recent dramatic drop in confidence may suggest that the worst is yet to come.” Prescient in hindsight. CEO’s were very negative about the future then and they continue to be.

The States with Most Births per capita are below. Utah is the state with the most births per capita. Alaska, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma are also Top States for Births.

Floyd also reports some observations about the politics of the lists. It might have been more fun if he had made some social observations. For example, is Utah more of a loving state as evidenced by the its high birth rates? Why is Vermont having so few births? Do they need to love a little more? State lists are fun What are your thoughts?

The article points out the marked differences between states and helpsmake the case that the lower tax, less government intrusion model of Texas is winning over California. This is a case we have long advocated. The Economist also notes the work that this writer has developed overthe last 5 years on Chief Executive’s Best and Worst States for Business. (Texas is #1 and California is #50 according to CEOs.)

With all 50 state governments under severe fiscal pressure, it is only a matter of time that the next phase of recovery will be focused on growth. You can not spend your way out of a problem. The severity of this budget crisis may lead finally to a rethinking of attitudes towards business. My list of states that need major rethinking would start with the 10 most broke states. They are:

1. California: $53.7 billion shortfall or 58 percent of its budget
2. Arizona: $4 billion shortfall or 41 percent of its budget
3. Nevada: $1.2 billion or 38 percent of its budget
4. Illinois: $9.2 billion or 33 percent of its budget
5. NewYork: $17.9 billion or 32 percent of its budget
6. Alaska: $1.35 billion shortfall or 30 percent of its budget
7. New Jersey: $8.8 billion or 30 percent of its budget
8. Oregon: $4.2 billion or 29 percent of its budget
9. Vermont: $278 million or 25 percent of its budget
10. Washington: $3.6 billion or 23 percent of its budget
10. Connecticut: $4.1 billion or 23 percent of its budget

Source: ABC News

The Top Ten Broke States tend to have the most taxation and most are run by liberal oriented governments.

All 50 states will be politically pressured to increase opportunities and jobs for their populations in the coming years. Being attractive to business will be the obvious choice. The wonders of our American system are our many state laboratories. High Tax States, Low Tax States, Business Friendly States and Business Unfriendly States. Those states early to adopt policies that encourage business will recover and grow faster than those who are slow. We are glad to see more publications like The Economist contributing to the debate. Hopefully we will start to see more low tax, business friendly policy changes in our many laboratories get enacted.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) http://www.aauw.org recently published a state ranking of pay equity for college educated women as compared to men.

The report found that in the United States, the earnings gap between college educated men and women over 25 years of age and who work full-time year round was 71%, meaning these women make 29 cents less on the dollar nationally. They also reported the differences in pay equity by state.

While we do not dispute the numbers as put forth by the study i.e. women typically are paid less than men, we do question the validity of the issue and the reasons typically put forth for its existance. We believe it presents a one sided argument in favor of legislation supporting the “Paycheck Fairness Act.” The AAUW supports legislation that would close the gap with legislation. The study has received significant publicity without some common sense rebuttal.
Why do we question the fairness and validity of this study?

We think many other factors also influence pay.

Should experience matter? Would it be fair to require people with more experience to be paid the same as those with less experience?

Should training and knowledge matter? Would it be fair to require pay to be the same for people with less training than others?

We believe training and experience should matter!!

The AAUW study neglects to point out that there are significant differences between men and women in the work place.

The Social Security Administration http://www.socialsecurity.gov reports that women typically work 13 years less than men during their lifetimes. 13 years of less work experience for any person is meaningful. You would expect those with less work experience regardless of sex to be paid less on average.

Women typically also leave the workforce to raise children. One study has measured the average time women leave the workforce for child rearing at 11.5 years. Women work less work years. This typically also leads to less training and development of computer and other specific job skills that are part of the pay criteria. Much of this is learned on the job. It is common sense to expect people with less training and less experience to be paid less.

While we highly respect the important contributions that women make to our world, we do not believe the AAUW study should be considered as an important fact to support pay fairness. Many women as matter of choice, happily leave the workforce. We hope for the benefit of fairness that this study and the “Pay Fairness Act” do not become accepted wisdom and law.

The chart below is from the Urban Institute The Urban Institute recognizes and charts the differences in male/female work experience. Men work significantly more years than women.
The “Best and Worst States for Pay Equity” are listed below. Read them with caution. Interestingly we could not find any obvious conclusions from the listings.

The “Best State for Pay Equity” is Vermont. Nearby New Hampshire is one of the “Worst States for Pay Equity.” Does this suggest that employers in Vermont are more “fair” to women than in New Hampshire? Why?

Are employers in Wisconsin or Montana fundamentally more “fair” than nearby poorly ranked Iowa? Are there factors other than male/female pay discrimination that are more influential that create lower average pay for women in Iowa? For example, do families in Wisconsin have a lower value for child rearing resulting in more work time for women and thus more pay? We think that would be a meaningless conclusion.

There are many factors that influence differences in pay between the sexes. We think state by state rankings offer limited insight and create numerous questions for understanding why.

Finally, the AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE, said “Our analysis is quite disturbing, especially when you consider how more and more families are depending on a woman’s paycheck as the primary source of income in these tough economic times. Consequently, the issue of pay equity takes on an added sense of urgency. This is just one of the reasons why we’re urging the Senate to join the House and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act,”

We disagree.

The “Paycheck Fairness Act” would be unfair if it punishes experience and training. Fairness requires that all people regardless of sex should be paid on the basis of experience and training as well.

Insurance.com publishes a monthly listing of car insurance rates. We thought you might like to see March results.

We also thought it might be interesting to see if safe drivers as measured by the annual GMAC driver safety study had a measurable benefit in insurance rates.

The Best State for Car Insurance is Vermont with an estimated annual premium of $1,304. It ranks 18 in the GMAC Safe Driver Study. The 4 other Best States for Car Insurance, i.e. the lowest premiums, are Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin and Idaho. The safest state of the top 5 according to GMAC is Idaho with a safe driver rank of 4. The safest driver state, Kansas, ranks 22 in car insurance premiums.

The Worst State for Car Insurance,( we put DC in a world of its own), is Louisiana with a premium of $2617 more than double that of Vermont!!! It also ranks 44 on the GMAC Safe Driver Study. New Jersey the Worst State for Safe Driving in the US has one of the highest car insurance rates rate just below Louisiana. Rounding out the WorstStates for Car Insurance are Delaware, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. All these state rate below average in the GMAC study.

Of the popular retirement states Tennessee is best rated for low premiums at 11. Arizona at 25 and Florida at 36 are more middle of the pack

Car Insurance rates have dropped over the last 6 months yet are still higher than a year ago. From a look of the list it appears that drivers who know the rules of the road benefit from safer roads and lower car insurance premiums. It may be beneficial for insurance companies to offer discounts to drivers who take a car exam annually that demonstrates they know the rules of the road.

The Tax Foundation recently released their 2009 Tax Freedom Day Study. It measures how many days the average worker must work to pay taxes. There is a wide disparity among states. The tax burden you bear can significantly impact your quality of life.

The Best State for Tax Freedom is Alaska where it takes 82 days almost 25% of the year just to pay taxes. Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota and West Virginia are also rated Best States for Tax Freedom. If you are not retired, these states would be considered as candidates for Best States to Work.

The Worst State for Tax Freedom is Connecticut where it takes 120 days or until April 30 to pay taxes. If you live in Connecticut 1/3 of your time every year goes to pay taxes to the Federal, State and Local governments. That is almost 50% more days than Alaska. New Jersey, New York, California and Maryland are also rated Worst States for Tax Freedom.

According to the Tax Foundation study, five major categories of tax dominate the tax burden. Individual income taxes, both federal and state, require 38 days’ work. Payroll taxes take another 27 days’ work. Sales and excise taxes, mostly state and local, take 15 days to pay off. Corporate income taxes take 6 days, and property taxes take 12. Americans will log 4 more days to pay other miscellaneous taxes, most notably including motor vehicle license taxes and severance taxes, and about 1 day for estate taxes.

What state you live in is very important in determining your lifestyle as higher cost of living states tend to have higher tax burdens. Lower disposable income is the result. Many states are also increasing many taxes due to economic conditions which will increase tax burdens. Noteworthy examples are the proposed increases in New York and California that will make these heavily burdened states more undesirable to live. If you are not retired, New York and California would have to be considered as 2 of the Worst States to Work.

The February 2009 State Unemployment numbers were released this past week and they were not pretty. Every state in the U.S. saw its unemployment rate increase.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also released March Unemployment, along with Feb state data, and the nationwide unemployment rate increased again to 8.5% nationwide. It was 8.1% in February.

Seven States had unemployment above 10% in February. Michigan was the Worst State for Jobs with a whopping 12% unemployment number. South Carolina, Oregon, North Carolina, California Rhode Island and Nevada also qualify as Worst States for Employment as the 6 other states with unemployment above 10% .

The Best State for Jobs based on a low 3.9% unemployment is Wyoming. 4 other states qualify as Best States forEmployment with rates still below 5%. They are: Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

Some of the state year on year changes are quite large. Unemployment increased by over 100% from last year in Hawaii and Oregon for example. Of the large states, Texas is holding up the best with unemployment of only 6.2% in February which was below the U.S. Feb average of 8.1%.

State data is released with a one month lag so expect March state unemployment to get even worse as unemployment increased nationwide in March by .4%.

Virginia is the Best State for Presidents with 8 Presidents born in its state. Ohio is second with 7. Massachusetts and New York with 4 are ranked third. Many states have no Presidents.

George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison were all born before the U.S. became a country. Their colonies later became states and are reflected as such in the table.